Books and Reading in the Digital Age - The Hague 16-17/12/2010

Research Foundations for Understanding Books and Reading in the Digital Age: Textual Methodologies and Exemplars

15 December 2010
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), The Hague in conjunction with the conference Text & Literacy (16-17 December)

Proposals due 30 September 2010

Digital technology is fundamentally altering the way we relate to writing, reading, and the human record itself. The pace of that change has created a gap between core social/cultural practices that depend on stable reading and writing environments and the new kinds of digital artefacts–electronic books being just one type of many–that must sustain those practices now and into the future.

This one-day gathering explores research foundations pertinent to understanding those new practices and emerging media, specifically focusing on work in textual method, in itself and via exemplar, leading toward [1] theorizing the transmission of culture in pre- and post-electronic media, [2] documenting the facets of how people experience information as readers and writers, [3] designing new kinds of interfaces and artifacts that afford new reading abilities, [4] conceptualizing the issues necessary to provide information to these new reading and communicative environments, and [5] reflection on interdisciplinary team research strategies pertinent to work in the area.

The gathering is offered in conjunction with the /Text & Literacy/ conference (16-17 December) and is sponsored by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the National Library of the Netherlands), the Book and Digital Media Studies department of Leiden University, and the Implementing New Knowledge Environments research group.

We invite paper and poster/demonstration proposals that address these and other issues pertinent to research in the area. Proposals should contain a title, an abstract (of approximately 250 words) plus list of works cited, and the names, affiliations, and website URLs of presenters; fuller papers will be solicited after acceptance of the proposal. Please send proposals before 30 September 2010 to siemens@uvic.ca.

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R.G. Siemens, English, University of Victoria, PO Box 3070 STN CSC,
Victoria, BC, Canada. V8W 3W1. Ph.(250)721-7272 Fax.(250)721-6498
siemens@uvic.ca http://web.uvic.ca/~siemens/